[BillyMac]

An April 11, 2007 NHL first round Stanley Cup playoff Game 1, which had the Dallas Stars playing in Vancouver against the Canucks, went into quadruple overtime. The game, which started at 10:00 p.m. ET aired in the United States on Versus, and lasted 5 1/2 hours, but was interrupted on some cable systems in the fourth overtime period by an infomercial, preventing viewers from watching Vancouver score the winning goal two minutes before the start of a fifth overtime, and win, 5-4. It is somewhat common for some cable systems to sell their own infomercial time on networks during non-programming overnight hours. After hearing complaints from viewers, Versus stated it would review its policies to prevent this from happening again, and try to figure out what triggered the infomercial to air.

On May 19, 2007 NHL Eastern Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs Game 5, which had the Ottawa Senators playing in Buffalo against the Buffalo Sabres, went into overtime. The game, which started at 2:00 p.m. ET aired in the United States on NBC. NBC pre-empted overtime coverage outside of the Buffalo and Rochester areas though in order to show pre-race coverage of the 2007 Preakness Stakes. The remainder of the game was televised on Versus. However, some cable providers do not carry Versus; thus, some viewers were unable to see the game's end which resulted in an Ottawa victory and their first ever trip to the Stanley Cup finals. The deciding goal of the hockey playoff game ended up being scored an hour before the actual Preakness race was run. However, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the first half-hour of horse racing preshow coverage earned a 3.8 rating, whereas the last half-hour of hockey, which immediately preceded it, had just a 1.5.

On May 26, 2007, only the first 19 laps of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Ohio 250 race were shown on Fox, due to a long rain delay that followed. When it ended nearly three hours later, the broadcast window had ended and regional telecasts of Major League Baseball replaced it. SPEED showed the entire race, with Fox graphics and other production elements, on tape delay at 11 p.m. ET that night. The oddity of this situation was that SPEED Channel showed live continuing coverage of the race from when it resumed on lap 20 at about 5:30 p.m. ET. However, when it started raining again on lap 107 at about 6:45 p.m. ET, SPEED Channel left the race and said that the conclusion would be seen on tape-delay at 11 p.m. ET under terms of NASCAR's television contractual restrictions. Under terms of NASCAR's television contracts (one for each national series), two live NASCAR broadcasts of different national series are prohibited from airing at the same time. ESPN2 was scheduled to begin live coverage of the Busch Series Carquest Auto Parts 300 from Lowe's Motor Speedway at 7:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown.)

In probably the most similar incident to the actual Heidi Bowl, an August 18, 2007 Canadian Football League game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Edmonton Eskimos was delayed for 55 minutes with Edmonton leading 32-27 due to thunderstorms at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. The CBC subsequently switched to a film, The Good Thief, starring Nick Nolte. By the time the game resumed, senior managers had turned off their cell phones for the evening and were unreachable, and an employee in the CBC programming department subsequently took control of the situation and refused to switch the network back to the game, except in Saskatchewan. The Roughriders subsequently scored 12 points and won the game 39-32. A senior manager of CBC Sports later criticized their network's failure to show the entire game live from coast to coast, and the network eventually broadcast the game on tape delay the following evening. However, the CBC has refused to discipline (or even name) the employee responsible.

On September 30, 2007, ESPN coverage of the LifeLock 400 from Kansas Speedway was switched from ABC to ESPN2 between the second rain delay at 6 p.m. in order for local ABC affiliates in the Eastern and Central time zones to air local news, ABC World News Tonight, and then to show ABC's primetime schedule. This was contrary to a recent NASCAR practice which is for a race that runs long because of rain delay to finish on the broadcast network. The practice began in 2002 when the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on NBC was delayed by rain; NBC stayed with the broadcast, instead of moving it to TNT, allowing Jamie McMurray's upset win to be broadcast on network television in primetime. The practice continued was kept by both Fox and NBC afterwards, and pushed other races (notably the Daytona 500) into primetime intentionally. In April 2005, the Aaron's 312 Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway had a three hour rain delay, starting shortly after 4:35 p.m. CT. The 500-kilometer, 117-lap race ran into prime-time, nearing the end of available light, and into green-white-checker finish, where the race ended after 120 laps. Fox continued with the broadcast, marking the first time NASCAR's #2 series had a network prime-time broadcast. Two months later, NBC had a 2 1/2-hour rain delay during the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, airing the start as the race started at 11 PM, even though it ended after 2 AM ET the morning.

Just 13 days after the LifeLock 400 (October 13), KTKA in Topeka, Kansas left ESPN on ABC's coverage of the NASCAR Bank of America 500 at 10 p.m. Central time (11 p.m. ET) to carry the local newscast and did not return for the final six laps once the race resumed after a red-flag delay that had started at the time of the newscast.

Equivalents also exist on radio, though usually in these cases it is usually due to a station being the flagship station for a certain team and being required to place priority on that team no matter the scheduling and broadcasting circumstances. For example, KSPN, the local affiliate for ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, joined the network for its coverage of the 2008 Orange Bowl (January 3), but did not air the finish of the game, in fact leaving it at halftime to join the USC conference college basketball opener at California.
On November 9, 2008 (almost 40 years to the date of the Heidi Bowl), ESPN moved the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff race #9 from ABC to ESPN2 during a red flag on Lap 274 of 312 (it was extended to 313 laps because of green-white-checkered). This took place except on the West Coast to make room for America's Funniest Videos, a regularly scheduled program, and also to protect Desperate Housewives, which airs at 9 p.m., and unlike other network programming, is not permitted to be delayed by sports overrun. NASCAR's Brian France blasted ESPN for this move.
On Wednesday February 4, 2009, millions of viewers watching an FA Cup 4th Round replay between Liverpool and Everton on most of the ITV network missed the winning goal in the last two minutes of extra time as a technical error meant the feed was switched to an advertisement break at the wrong time. Viewers in southern England, Wales and Northern Ireland missed the goal entirely - the picture returning to show the celebrating Everton players. Viewers in northern England and southern Scotland returned to the live feed around five seconds before the goal was scored.